MovieChat Forums > In weiter Ferne, so nah! (1993) Discussion > What was up with all the language shifti...

What was up with all the language shifting?

posted 19 years ago by Billybob-Shatner
9 replies | jump to latest

from German to English, sometimes within the same sentance. And one character shifted from talking German, to American English, to German, to English with a German accent. Granted, it was pretty unique, but any idea why it was done?

[–] GabrieleTassi 19 years ago

In my opinon, it has to do with the feeling of hope for a new idea of Europe, no longer cut in two by the wall of Berlin and the juxtaposition capitalism/comunism. It is surely highly irrealistic that such a small child as Damiel's daughter can fluently speak German, Italian and French, even if she's grown in Germany with an Italian father and a French mother. However the continuos shift between languages (one has to include the Russian spoken by Gorbachev) gives a sense of unity between people, a sort of enhanced comunication possibility after the time of ideological divisions. Or maybe not. Bye.

[–] ana_ana_cu 19 years ago

If you liked this languages mix, you'll maybe like the movie Sin Noticias de Dios "No news from God" also called "Don't tempt me". Where they also change from one language to the other in a justified way.

[–] Rufus-T 19 years ago

I wonder if William Dafoe or Peter Falk can speak any German at all. If I remember correctly, it seems almost all of the English speaking scenes have at least one of them involved.

[–] racinefo 19 years ago

Anton spoke English a lot, as he moved to America when he was about ten. It's him who usually switches back and forth between English and German.

"Time? Time is an illusion. The only time now is party time." - Aqua Teen Hunger Force

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] haragan 18 years ago

If I recall correctly, there is some Spanish too: "adios compañero" (scene in river with a drunk Cassiel); and something about "Speedy Gonzalez"...

[–] perorewen 17 years ago

I like the theory about how it emphasizes universality. When I've seen this film, the change of languages never bothered me. To be frank, I hardly noticed it, I just felt it was very right that they changed. It just occoured to me to be very beautiful the way they did it.

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[–] sweiland75 17 years ago

I haven't seen this movie but by the talk in this thread it seems to be discouraging the idea of multiculturalism in favour of a homogenous culture. I don't agree with that idea.

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[–] rosabelverde_1127 17 years ago

I haven't seen this movie but by the talk in this thread it seems to be discouraging the idea of multiculturalism in favour of a homogenous culture. I don't agree with that idea.

Lol! Likewise I don't agree with jumping to premature conclusions about a film you haven't even seen. This film doesn't encourage or discourage anything, and you don't seem to be very familiar with Wenders - suspecting him of discouraging multiculturalism, of all persons!

As another poster on this thread already mentioned, the switching of languages wasn't particularly noticeable for me either. It happens here all the time, and I find myself often enough in a culturally mixed company where we jump from one language to another in conversation, more often than not even in the middle of a sentence. To me it seems that Wenders here mirrors just one aspect of our daily reality, unless, that is, you live in a small village where population is still very homogeneous and one language will do, but this film is about Berlin after the fall of the iron curtain, don't forget.

Regards, Rosabel